1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an intrusion detection system (IDS) for use within a computer network, and particularly to such a system that makes use of co-operative software agents.
2. Related Art
The advent in recent years of a number of increasingly powerful macro viruses, some of which have port-scanning capabilities, has demonstrated the inadequacies of most current static and manually-controlled security mechanisms for protecting computer systems. As viral and other attacks become increasingly common, and increasingly sophisticated, traditional systems are unlikely to be able to cope. Such systems are insufficiently flexible, scalable or reactive to be able to deal effectively with new and potentially unknown security threats.